Locked Out: Brand Identity Without Basketball

In late July, newly mohawked Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Love stood under a volleyball net in the middle of a busy street in Times Square. A makeshift beach had been set-up—nearly 100 tons of sand brought in—and Love, the consummate athlete, was sporting black shorts and a black T-shirt. On the shirt, in yellow script, read one word: "Cuervo." It was a no-frills reference to popular tequila brand Jose Cuervo, the crowning sponsor for the new Pro Beach Volleyball series he’d become the face of. Later this month, Love said, he plans to play in the Manhattan Beach Open in Southern California. "I’m training and working hard," he told one media outlet. "I don’t want to embarrass myself."

Any other summer this would seem odd, if a bit erratic for an NBA player—let alone the league’s leading rebounder and one of its rising talents. Taking up another sport in lieu of rest for the upcoming season is not exactly good for business. But with players locked out by league officials for nearly two months, Love did what any intelligent pro would: He separated himself.

Love’s situation, though, reflects the larger, more troubled, conversation surrounding lockout mania: What are players going to do if the season, as National Basketball Players Association ecutive director Billy Hunter believes will happen, is cancelled? There’s been chatter and threats of a mass exodus overseas—a herd of players taking their talents to foreign hardwood—but Commissioner Stern and owners have remained steadfast in their effort to bandage the league’s losses, somewhere around a reported $300 million (the union disputes this figure). Worse yet: How do players plan to stay relevant without the game that’s made them public figures?

"You’ve got to break through the clutter," says David Schwab, a brand consultant at Octagon First Call who’s worked on marketing campaigns with players ranging from Steve Nash to Lamar Odom. "Part of it is getting a little lucky or playing a ridiculously incredible game like Kevin [Durant] did recently and then having that take off. But that’s not a strategy. He just scored lights out and it became an Internet sensation. The smart ones will do some exhibitions in different countries, making good money, but also have the chance to shake hands and see different people and go meet brands. Some will create their own home videos and push that out and engage with fans. And others will just try to do things outside of basketball to stay relevant. If they cook," he offers by way of example, "get involved with something from the Food Network. They all have the chance."

This, of course, is nothing new. Athletes like Love are superstars, but also personalities that are expected to be plugged into the conversation at all times. Modern athletes are brands unto themselves. And through the powers of social media they have the ability to push their own message to the public. Never before, though, have players had such instant access in times of great uncertainty. If the 1998-99 lockout taught us anything, it’s that communication is vital in steering the narrative.

"It’s a bit of a land grab," says Amy Martin, CEO of Digital Royalty, of the opportunities players will have through social media if the lockout persists, "because there are other fan bases they can tap into now." In late 2008, working as director of digital media and research for the Phoenix Suns, Martin approached Shaquille O’Neal, then one of the team’s big men, with an idea: Random Acts of Shaqness—a campaign developed "to bridge the virtual world with the physical world." It was a shot in the dark, she thought, especially since Twitter had yet to take off, but the future Hall-of-Famer was all for it. "Shaquille starts do these stunts that you still see today. The hide and tweet stuff, the concept of calling fans. The very first one we did we were standing in a mall in Phoenix and he tweeted his exact location." Nearly three years later Shaq, now retired, is one of Twitter’s most outspoken personalities and Martin’s idea has become a best practice model for all athletes hoping to expand their brand.

Martin says players should be mindful of a few things: one, it’s less about the medium—whether Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or UStream—and more about the message; and two, it ultimately boils down to style versus approach. "You don’t have to have that outrageous, Shaquille O’Neal lip-syncing video," she says. "You just have to figure out what your value is."

Which begs an even tougher question: Why haven’t players been more vocal through their own social media channels? "That’s a failure of the Players Association. Owners have controlled the message so far. Players haven’t," a source told GQ. "There is a lot out there that goes beyond the profit and loss information the owners put out. But it’s tough to organize 450 guys. You don’t want a guy putting something out on behalf of the player’s association and it’s one of those Latrell Spreewell I-got-a-family-to-feed messages. That’s not going to help the cause at all."

It’s not just about the players, though. There’s a political and socioeconomic war going on, too. "There are factions within the ownership group," the source says. "What this comes down to is small market versus large market. If I’m negotiating on behalf of the players I’m trying to figure out every single way to splinter that ownership group. Because the Lakers don’t have the same problems as the Kings. That’s really the major issue with the NBA; the revenue sharing is poor. If they’re able to figure out a way to take a percentage of it and split it up more equally amongst the owners and maybe, possibly, get rid of one team, they’d be solving a ton. Basically you’ve solved all revenue issues."

Get rid of one team?

"Think about it. Basically you’re taking the 15 worse guys out of the NBA. Player’s expenses, gone. All that’s gone. And all the television revenue gets to be split amongst 29 teams instead of 30."

As for now, the future of the 2011-2012 season is still uncertain. Two weeks ago, the NBA filed a federal lawsuit in an effort to block decertification and an NLRB complaint that claimed bad faith by the union. And as the battle moves to court, players remain surprisingly silent despite access to audiences through social media channels. Except for a few. With news of the lawsuit spreading, Oklahoma City Thunder power forward Nick Collison took to Twitter. "If Kobe, Farmar, Dooling make money overseas," he wrote, "it will not divide the union as Sterns tactic suggests. What unifies the NBAPA is the owners’ stance that a long, momentum-crushing lockout is the best way to break the union, and guarantee themselves profit win or lose."

It’s a scary thought, sure—but what if there is no basketball come November? Chris Kaman, center for the Los Angeles Clippers, already has plans on how to stay relevant. "Watching Storage Wars," he recently tweeted, "and I think I could do this if we have a lockout."

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